Comments on the Mammoth Trails website

March 19, 2013

I have two comments on last week’s article titled “Mammoth Trails website springs to life.”

The Mammoth Lakes Trails System Coordinating Committee June 28, 2012, minutes note the total cost of the trails website as “approximately $225,000.”

Measure R funds and Town General Funds were the major contributor, along with some private funds.

That amount, plus the approximately $30,000 budgeted for first year maintenance totals more than one quarter of a million dollars.

I would also like to note that the Town’s paved bike paths were constructed as a result of a historically solid and amicable relationship between the Town and the Forest Service.

The bike paths were built segment by segment, starting in the early 1990s, continuing through the present.

During my 18 years here in Mammoth Lakes, including 10 years as a Forest Service Manager, I have never seen a “quirky and sometimes tempestuous relationship” between the two governmental bodies, and I doubt that this statement came from either agency.

On the contrary, whenever projects were stalled, each body exhibited patience and persistence.

The development of formal MOU’s have been developed to document that historical partnership, and will soon be signed by both parties.